Grace & White Inc. NY Sells 2,000 Shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Grace & White Inc. NY trimmed its holdings in shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL - Free Report) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,283 shares of the iPhone maker's stock after selling 2,000 shares during the quarter. Grace & White Inc. NY's holdings in Apple were worth $3,076,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AAPL. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Apple by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Warren Street Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 19,376 shares of the iPhone maker's stock valued at $4,852,000 after purchasing an additional 973 shares during the period. MFG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,462,000. Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Apple in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,476,000. Three Bridge Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Apple by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Three Bridge Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,388 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $3,353,000 after acquiring an additional 689 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channing Global Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apple by 42.0% during the 4th quarter. Channing Global Advisors LLC now owns 21,016 shares of the iPhone maker's stock worth $5,263,000 after acquiring an additional 6,219 shares in the last quarter. 67.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apple Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AAPL traded up $2.52 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $196.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 51,328,536 shares, compared to its average volume of 56,825,645. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $2.96 trillion, a P/E ratio of 31.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The business's 50 day moving average price is $219.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.13. Apple Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.77 and a fifty-two week high of $260.10.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The iPhone maker reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.04. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. On average, analysts forecast that Apple Inc. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Apple's payout ratio is 15.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Apple news, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares in the company, valued at $40,072,269.86. This represents a 17.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Jeffrey E. Williams sold 35,493 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.01, for a total value of $7,950,786.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 390,059 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,377,116.59. This represents a 8.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 182,451 shares of company stock worth $40,818,720 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AAPL. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Apple in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Apple from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays lifted their target price on Apple from $183.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James increased their price target on Apple to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on Apple from $325.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apple has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $235.85.

About Apple

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.